Creating New Markets for Small-scale Fisheries

No-take Marine Protected Areas (Nt-MPAs) are an important tool for biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that a large proportion of Nt-MPAs are not managed or enforced effectively. Further, governments and fishing communities are often resistant to the implementation and compliance of formal Nt-MPAs. Consequently, there is a need to increase the effectiveness of marine conservation by developing new approaches to biodiversity protection that promote fisher engagement and sustainable fishery practices.

ACS is using a place-based, human-centered approach to design a program that will have the necessary support and buy-in from local fishers to result in landscape-scale biodiversity benefits and novel cross-sector alliances.

Territorial User Rights for Fisheries, known as TURFs, are being promoted to enhance the sustainability of small-scale fisheries. Chile has one of the longest running TURF policies in the world. Many artisanal fishers are organized in formal cooperatives and are granted TURFs by the federal government: long-term tenure over a section of coast which they can harvest benthic invertebrates and other resources. With our partners (Shellcatch, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, and Virginia Tech), we are designing and piloting a new market model in Chile that provides measurable coastal biodiversity benefits while simultaneously providing economic benefits to fishing cooperatives. We are doing so by co-designing a program with artisanal fishers that compensates them for the opportunity costs forgone by setting aside a portion of their TURF as an enforced no-take zone. The outcome is a scalable program that provides a supplementary revenue stream to fishing cooperatives in exchange for management actions that produce verified biodiversity benefits and promote sustainable fisheries. ACS is using a place-based, human-centered approach to design a program that will have the necessary support and buy-in from local fishers to result in landscape-scale biodiversity benefits and novel cross-sector alliances.

A fishing cooperative agrees to set aside part of its TURF as a no-take zone and to conduct agreed upon anti-poaching surveillance. In exchange, they receive an annual payment to compensate for the forgone opportunity costs and biodiversity benefits created as a result of the no-take zone and anti-poaching surveillance. A third-party video-monitoring system monitors the no-take zone for a contract breach: fishing activities either by cooperative members or poaching events. Baseline conditions are established and biodiversity is monitored at three sites: the no take-zone, inside the TURF where harvesting is occurring by the cooperative, and outside the TURF in the open access area.